A/N: Well, I've passed 3,000 hits on the story, which makes me really happy! Thankyou to everyone who reads and reviews! Enjoy!
Chapter Five
19th October, 1998. Friday.
Hermione found herself walking into Hogsmeade at lunchtime as if she was in a trance; she didn't remember leaving the castle or much of the walk down in the bitterly cold weather. It was only when she was leaning against the wall that bordered the village, her vision swimming, that she was fully aware of what she was doing, by which point she was too cold to manage the whole walk back. She started across the deserted street and headed into a shop she'd never before noticed, The Magic Neep, where she found other lunchtime wanderers shielding themselves from the wind.
"Hello, Hermione," came a friendly voice from beside her. Hermione turned and was met with a wide smile from Victoria, her fellow eighth-year Gryffindor. She felt a slight pang of guilt at casting spells on her every night, but, she reminded herself, it was necessary so that she could complete her exercises in peace.
"Oh, hello Victoria," Hermione replied with a faint smile, pulling her gloves off so that her icy fingers could thaw in the shop's warmth. "What are you doing here?"
"I usually come here to get my lunch," Victoria answered brightly, "they make nice sandwiches, and sometimes I even get a Cauldron Cake as well, if I'm feeling really greedy."
Victoria laughed, but Hermione had to fight to keep the disgusted grimace off her face at the thought of all that food. She looked around instead, drawing attention away from her pursed lips. "What is this place? It doesn't look like a café."
"It's not," Victoria smiled kindly, "it's more of a greengrocer's, but they do have a little seating area upstairs where you can get coffee, if you would like to come and get some?"
Hermione faced her again, taking in her long, dark brown hair and wide, green eyes. She had quite a round face, with a light dusting of freckles across the top of her nose, and a warm smile which Hermione could tell was always genuine. She nodded, smiling a little more widely now and gesturing to Victoria to lead the way.
The seating area was very cosy; there were a number of plush armchairs scattered around the room, four for every small coffee table that reached Hermione's knees. The walls were stone, but the large fireplace at the far end of the area kept it a pleasantly warm temperature. Despite that, Hermione kept her coat on as they sat down because she was still fairly chilly; she could feel the beginnings of goosebumps rising on her arms.
"So what made you come back to Hogwarts?" Victoria asked, shrugging off her coat and draping it over the back of her armchair. "I thought you'd have joined the Ministry like Harry and Ron."
Hermione shook her head. "No, not right away. I wanted to finish my education first before I jumped into anything. Kingsley – I mean, the Minister – said he'd keep the offer open in case it wasn't what I wanted to do immediately."
Victoria nodded understandingly. Hermione asked, "What about you? What made you come back?"
She shrugged slightly in response. "My dad thought it was best, actually, even though he doesn't really understand any of it." At Hermione's confused expression, she explained, "My dad's a Muggle; he doesn't even know what N.E.W.T.s are. He just wanted me to come back to take my mind off things."
"Oh, um…" Hermione frowned. "Do you mean the war?"
Victoria smiled sadly and looked down at her hands. "We lost my mother during the war."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Hermione apologised, wishing she had politely declined Victoria's offer for coffee. The waitress still hadn't even brought their orders out, so she now felt unable to excuse herself.
"Don't worry about it, you couldn't have known," Victoria smiled, looking up at her. She blinked away the tears that Hermione pretended not to notice and forced a smile onto her face. "Do you hear from Harry and Ron a lot?"
Hermione sighed. "Ron and I haven't been the same since the war; we don't talk properly anymore. I write to Harry sometimes but I don't want to impose, he's probably very busy at the Ministry."
"You know," Victoria commented, "my friend Aria sees a lot of them both. She works at the Ministry too."
"Oh? I don't know her, I don't think."
"She was in Ravenclaw, she was very quiet," Victoria explained. "Kept herself to herself."
At this point, the waitress came over, carrying Hermione's plain black coffee and a cup of tea for Victoria.
"Hey, could I get a Cauldron Cake too?" Victoria asked the departing waitress, who nodded. "You want anything else?" she asked Hermione.
She shook her head abruptly. "I already ate lunch."
"She doesn't smile anymore."
Draco had mulled over Astoria's words in his head for the rest of the week, sneaking covert glances at Granger whenever she wasn't watching to see how true they might be. He watched her eat dinner on an evening from a distance, if one could call a portion of such a size a full dinner, and watched as she gradually grew paler and picked awkwardly at the food on her plate. The past few nights, she seemed to be changing to such an extent before his very eyes that he wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him, fooled into imagining things that were not real.
After all, it was surely not possible to change so dramatically in such a short space of time. She was practically white that night as she stirred her soup continuously with her spoon, her eyes downcast and her hair hanging limply around her face. She looked as though the Great Hall was the last place she wanted to be.
Ten minutes later, Hermione's spoon landed with a clatter on the top of the table, her soup untouched, before she hoisted her bag onto her shoulder and left the Hall in a hurry. Draco seized the opportunity and sped after her, cornering her just outside the Hall entrance. He grabbed her upper arm and she spun around to face him in surprise.
"Come on, Granger, what's the matter with you?" Draco asked waspishly; Hermione flinched at his venomous tone before wrenching her arm out of his bruising grip.
She took a step away from him. "You won't leave me alone is what's the matter with me," she spat, taking enormous pleasure, and only feeling slightly guilty, at the inexplicable flash of hurt that danced momentarily across his face. She was graceful enough to keep her triumphant smile off her face as she turned and stormed away from him, but she was bemused to find that she was a little disappointed when he did not, for once, follow her.
All she wanted to do as she hurried to Gryffindor Tower through the winding stone-walled corridors was check her reflection in her bedside cabinet mirror to measure the damage she'd done since she woke up that morning to find her hip bones jutting slightly more than they had been. She ran through the day again in her mind as she hurtled up staircases and around corners.
One slice of plain toast for breakfast with a glass of water.
Hermione couldn't even face the thought of a glass of pumpkin juice that morning, although she couldn't quite put her finger on why; water just seemed cleaner. Neater; somehow less. She felt emptier than she would have had she drank the juice and she knew it; the thought of that alone brought a small smile to the corners of her lips. That same smile was widened at the thought of how all the running through the castle could help her to lose more weight.
Black coffee for lunch, no sugar, no cream or milk.
She'd had a good day, by her standards. She felt inexplicably filled with energy, although she had developed a nasty habit of having to stop and rest against the wall when her vision blurred and brightened. She darted through the portrait hole and into the crowded Gryffindor common room before she was stopped by Ginny.
"Woah, slow down!" Ginny laughed as she put her hands out to stop Hermione from colliding with her. She was alarmed by how flustered Hermione appeared. "Is everything okay?"
"Yes, yes, I'm fine," Hermione said quickly, clearly agitated.
"Are you sure? You don't look very well," Ginny said, concerned, after looking her up and down. "You're white as a sheet."
"I'm fine," Hermione persisted. "You don't need to worry about me."
"Hermione, you look really ill," Ginny insisted gravely. "You've lost even more weight; you don't look healthy."
Hermione had to suppress her smile. "Honestly, Ginny, I appreciate your concern but it's not necessary. It's just stress about N.E.W.T.s that's getting me down, I promise."
Ginny looked at her dubiously. "Maybe you should go to the hospital wing and ask Madame Pomfrey to check if you're okay."
Hermione sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "Ginny, I'm being serious; there is nothing wrong with me. Stop worrying please."
Ginny shrugged. "If you're sure. I have to go; we have an evening Quidditch practice session tonight. I'll see you later, Hermione."
She gave a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes as she left Hermione standing alone in the common room. Without dwelling too much on what Ginny said, she hurried up the stairs to the dormitory. She threw her bag on the bed and went to stand in front of her mirror, pulling up her shirt and scrutinising her stomach. She cupped her ribs in her hands, willing the bones to thrust forward through the skin so she could satisfy her morbid curiosity and see what it would look like.
Something told her it would be beautiful. But as she stared in the mirror, she knew she wasn't beautiful yet.
A small voice in the back of her head whispered,
Fat.
A/N: 'The Magic Neep' is a greengrocer type shop in the Harry Potter theme park, but I made up the story of Victoria's parents, and also Aria.
Hope you enjoyed, please review!
WD,
xo.